Miller field part on new carbon sequestration project
The Miller gas field is central to new plans being drawn up by Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), which aims to capture carbon dioxide from a new power station before the harmful greenhouse gas can reach the atmosphere.
29th May 2006
carbon-info.org
If the SSE project gets approval it is expected that 1.8 million tons of CO2 could be pumped the 150 miles offshore and stored underground each year in the Miller field. The CO2 would be captured at source, a new power station to be build at Peterhead, which is expected to produce 475 megawatts of electricity for circa 0.5 million people.
Carbon sequestration is not a new technology. However, this would be the first time that a project of this size would aim to utilise the technology.
Carbon capture and burial was invented in the 1980 and is seen by the UN and Inter-government Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) as an important tool in the fight against global warming. IPCC is proposing that by 2050 as much as 45% of the CO2 emitted globally could be stored underground.
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Ian Marchant, Managing Director for SSE, has called on the UK government to support the innovative £750 million project financially and help ensure that regulatory obstacles are removed.
The project, if approved by SSE and BP, which operates the Miller field, could be functional by the end of the decade.
